[BeyondtheHorizon]

Originally Posted by MrGompers

Feds won't allow border only tolls, so forget about that. All three of those CT/MA border tolls can be driven around easily. Those tolls will only increase traffic on local roads.

I agree. Makes zero sense.

[Henry10]

Originally Posted by MrGompers

Feds won't allow border only tolls, so forget about that. All three of those CT/MA border tolls can be driven around easily. Those tolls will only increase traffic on local roads.

Excellent point. These tolls are really about another revenue stream into the General fund. I posted a study earlier that tolls on I84 at Danbury will really burden local roads in Bethel and Ridgefield. But they dont care. They just need the money, and masquerade that as fairness against NY and NJ drivers.

[BPt111]

Tolls are not coming to CT

Tolls left for dead, this year - Connecticut Post

[East of the River]

Originally Posted by MrGompers

Feds won't allow border only tolls, so forget about that. All three of those CT/MA border tolls can be driven around easily. Those tolls will only increase traffic on local roads.

Yeah have to agree. I looked up one of the studies it appears MA and a few other states have proposed border taxes but no one has officially gotten an answer from the feds from what I can tell.

One of the studies claimed only 1000 cars a day would avoid the I91 Springfield toll. That alone makes the study laughable. You can avoid the border crossing on 91 with about 3 minutes of driving.

[Matrix2791]

Originally Posted by East of the River

Yeah have to agree. I looked up one of the studies it appears MA and a few other states have proposed border taxes but no one has officially gotten an answer from the feds from what I can tell.

One of the studies claimed only 1000 cars a day would avoid the I91 Springfield toll. That alone makes the study laughable. You can avoid the border crossing on 91 with about 3 minutes of driving.

Yeah there are so many areas you could drive around to avoid the tolls. Local back roads will just get more cloaked with border tolls. You could avoid the Mass Pike easily by simply driving down RT20 East, as long as you don't mind going through some lights. I've done it many times.

[Henry10]

Around NY sometimes no-toll routing from Waze for example gets you to the destination at same time or faster than tolled ones. After a while I learned which ones.

[RunD1987]

Originally Posted by JayCT

Well the Republicans in Connecticut have now proposed spending less than half of the amount proposed under Governor Malloy's $100 billion 30 year plan. They say we have to live within our means and do not need to look beyond current funding sources (i.e. no tolls). They also think that the Federal government will increase the amount they contribute in the future to roadways but that is not likely given the way things are going in Congress today.

Amazon.com ramps up for CT hiring | HartfordBusiness.com

Personally, I find the Republican plan to be more of the same old thing. Our transportation infrastructure is falling apart and there is a strong need to do something bold to fix things. State Senator Fasano's statements on Federal funding and that you can only do "one project" at a time on I-95 show he knows very little about transportation projects. Right now there are several projects going on along the highway including the Q Bridge, the West River Bridge, the Moses Wheeler Bridge and the operational lane project near Route 7 in Norwalk. In the past they rebuilt I-95 in Bridgeport when projects were going on in Darien and Stamford. I also like how former CTDOT Commissioner and Deputy Secretary of Transportation at the USDOT, Emil Frankel, told him his assumptions on Federal money increasing were not the best assumption to make.

So the question is, do we keep going along at the same pace we have been for the past 20 years or do we change? What do you think? Jay

We can't fund our infrastructure currently. The Infrastructure in CT needs improvement. Tolls and privatization of highways.

[Matrix2791]

Originally Posted by Henry10

Around NY sometimes no-toll routing from Waze for example gets you to the destination at same time or faster than tolled ones. After a while I learned which ones.

I've actually drove to Saint Louis, MO without paying a single toll. On the way back I payed a $1 to cross the Hudson river bridge in NY. I wouldn't of really saved much time going through toll roads looking at my GPS routes. So CT go ahead and put tolls, I know all the backs road in the State.

[BPt111]

WALLINGFORD — New train stations in Wallingford, Meriden and Berlin are expected to be finished in July, but the state Department of Transportation is still negotiating with an unnamed operator to run the CTrail Hartford Line when it begins in January 2018, a department spokesman said this week.


New Haven Union Station---Connection to Metro North to Fairfield County/Grand Central, Amtrak to Boston, D.C, Vermont, Shoreline East to New London area

Hamden-Proposed station
North Haven
Wallingford Station
Meriden Station
Berlin Station
Newington Station-- proposed
West Hartford Station --in design
Hartford Station--connection to Northeast Regional to Springfield, Vermonter
Windsor Station
Windsor Locks Station
Enfield Station-- in design

Springfield, Mass--Lake Shore Limited connection to Boston and Chicago, IL, Northeast Regional, Vermonter


DOT mum on details of Hartford Line operator as negotiations continue | MyRecordJournal.com |

[JayCT]

So while it appears that the idea of tolls to fund transportation projects has failed this year, the idea to put a lockbox on the State's Special Transportation Fund has been approved by both the House and Senate. I was surprised that this question is going to the voters though and that it has to wait more than a year to be on the ballot. Still it is a good thing. Jay

Senate paves way for voters to authorize transportation ‘lockbox’ | HartfordBusiness.com